Tom_NUFC

COULD THE FRENCH INFECT CLIFF RICHARD WITH AIDS?

Good riddance, and yes, I to am waiting for that glorious day when Thatcher dies.

On the subject of designer fashion. I had a 'British Popular Culture' lecture today at Uni, which this week was focussing on Shopping and Consumerism. The lecturer who takes this is one of the big 'experts' in British Retail/Consumer History, and he's written countless stuff on the subject. He was going on a big rant about designer labels today. Apparently they're not actually designed by the labels they have. Many of them are designed by a company based in New Jersey, which then makes them in China/India/Indonesia etc. All they do is pay the designer labels for the licence to stick their names on it. He then went onto a similar rant about perfumes and aftershaves. All the fashion label ones - Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney, DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger etc. They actually know nothing about perfumes and just sell the licence for them to an Oxford based subsidiary of Unilever called 'Industrial Odors' which also produces the odors for stuff like Flash and Toilet Duck, which apparently is a very similar process. And then there was his class and personality theories that he's conducted on City Centre vs Shopping Mall shoppers.

I'd say it probably is, because its a hell of a decision to make, either get treatment which might allow you to survive, but will be a very long, painful and tiring experience. Or do you just say f*ck it and enjoy life while you can but know that in doing so you're going to die. Its not a decision I'd like to make.

I've never had any first hand experience of suicide before. But what I have experienced myself is clinical depression, and it made me feel extremely low at times, lower than I'd have ever thought possible prior to me suffering from depression. On those really bad, dark days there were times when I felt that killing myself would be the easy way out, that I was a burden - even a disgrace to family and friends. I never even got close to actually attempting it though, I always pulled around and thought to myself that I would fight through it. It's funny though, I did used to laugh at the prospect of jumping from the Tyne Bridge and always felt it would be cliched. But from having depression, I know for a fact that it completely distorts your feelings. No one thought I was a burden or a disgrace, but you just don't think normally. I had flashes when I had those thoughts that wouldn't people be upset if I did it, and I'd think, well yes, but they'd get over it and be better off without me. It's not true, but because everything's distorted, you believe stuff like that. I don't think it's right that people who commit suicide are cowards. Didn't they think about their family and friends? That's thinking about things logically, which just doesn't happen when you're severely depressed. The answer is, yeah, they probably did and they probably came to the conclusion that they were a burden and friends and family would be better off without them. I can't even imagine how low and how much pain you must feel to seriously even attempt suicide. However, I do get angry about situations when someone committing suicide ends up killing or injuring other people in the process. Again, your mind distorts things, but surely not so much that you'd jeopardise other people? Perhaps it does. I was never as bad as that, so I don't know.

I really don't like the idea of a f*cking Royal winning anyway. They have enough privileges.

Calzaghe

Threatening to jump off the Tyne Bridge is cliched.

Fucks sake. I've heard stories of cats being microwaved, and that's sick enough, but a baby! Beyond belief

In no particular order, my Favourite 10 albums of the year. Muse - Black Holes And Revolations The Killers - Sam's Town Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ballad Of The Broken Seas Hot Chip - The Warning Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not Primal Scream - Riot City Blues Joanna Newsom - Ys Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit Kasabian - Empire The Fratellis - Costello Music

There's some Polish workers in the flat directly opposite my house, and they're no bother.

Yeah, that pretty much works. I usually spread my drinks out as well. I'll have a couple of pints and then a soft drink or two and then another pint. Also, brush your teeth and tounge before you go to bed. Your mouth won't feel like somethings died in it quite so much when you wake up in the morning.

Buffet wise, I like Laus

hat a very dly designed b site what ith all those tters missing, om the beginning f some words kes it quite rd to make out me of the things hat they're ying to say

Simonside Terrace

Aye, Viv Graham was shot in or outside some pub on Wallsend High Street. The car that his killers used was dumped in Heaton, at the top of my back lane. I remember there were loads of Police around near mine. Loads of kids at school used to reckon they knew Viv Graham, and used to go around threatening other kids and teachers that they'd get Viv on to them. Then after he died the same kids were going around writing Viv RIP on tables and on their ties in Tippex.

He's got a point when he says if you don't want to get shot at, don't join the army. I agree with him. If you join the army, then you have to be prepared to be deployed in war zones and fight and realise that someone might try to shoot you (and succeed). Having said that, they put their lives on the line for this country. Whether you agree or disagree with the war in Iraq/Afghanistan is irrelevant. Rightly or wrongly, they're there in the name of the UK, and if the British government decide to deploy them, then the British government should do everything in their power to make sure they have the best protection, equipment and resources possible and to make damned sure that they and their families are looked after if they're killed or wounded.

My Grandad (on my Mam's side) died in May a couple of weeks short of his 87th birthday. He'd been ill for the last few months of his life, but before that had been healthy. He was always out and about and doing his garden. Both of my Grandma's are 81. My Grandma on my Mam's side is still quite active, just a bit eccentric - but she always has been. Apart from refusing to admit that she's going deaf and needs a hearing aid she's OK. My Grandma on my Dad's side has suffered badly since she broke her leg cycling to work about 18 years ago. Her leg gives her terrible pain, but with the help of family and neighbours she still gets out and about, and there's nothing wrong with her mentally.

As far as I'm aware, they're not exclusive to Muslims, they've just been designed for Muslims because the standard mortgages come under what Islam constitutes as gambling, which is a sin. I think that's fair enough, its filling a gap and there's nothing to stop non-Muslims from taking out a Muslim Mortgage.

I've got a 40gb Creative Zen, which looks like a brick compared to some of the players around now, but it doesn't bother me, because its never given me any bother, the sound quality is top notch, the memory is huuuuuuge and I paid less for it than I would have done for an iPod with half the memory. Its been dropped a few times, used almost everyday, but it holds up well.

well if he's got the money to waste fair enough, but I think he's a bit of a twat.

I give to it sometimes, although having seen Look North the other night, with Children In Need money funding a Charver youth club in Blyth (encouraging that horrid hardcore sh!te) I've been put off. I suppose its better than them causing hassle on the street, but they really should be funding a Charver provention project, to invent, build and buy a machine of some sort where the kids go in on a conveyor belt and come out clensed of all charver characteristics. I will give something though. The other thing that gets me about Children In Need, and I say this every year, apart from the fact that the show is quite possibly the worst Television shown all year, is that there are some kids in desperate need in order to help them live their lives or even keep them alive and they're relying on the charity and kindness of people for this. Where is the government in all of this? What are they doing? We're supposed to have a welfare system. Britain is the fourth richest country in the world - the f*cking FOURTH RICHEST! Why aren't these kids being provided for? Truth be told, I find it sick and disturbing that this is the case. That children have to rely on kindness and something which is little more than a begging appeal for their lives. Its a damning indictment on the development of Ultra Capitalism and the callous, Thatcherite unravelling of the Welfare State. One day, it will go too far and snap.

So when did your Dad and Uncle get out of prison? That does sound bad doesn't it. He felt really guilty when he realised how frightened I'd been. My Mam and my Grandma went off it when they found out. No harm done though. No mental scars from it or anything, but probably not the wisest thing my Dad did. Seriously though, that gives the impression he was a bad father, and nothing could be further from the truth.

Just a watch, and that has a leather strap. Its a nice watch though, a late 1940s Omega. I dare say that if I ever get married, I suppose I'll wear a wedding ring.

I thought they were pretty good last night. Not outstanding, but good enough. I enjoyed it.